HONG KONG (SE): Hong Kong Catholic Diocese Commission for Labour Affairs organised an exhibition of cleaners’ rooms in Hong Kong’s public toilets to draw more attention to the poor working environment. It pointed out that the toilet attendant’s room should be expanded or located outside the public toilet to allow them to rest in a more dignified manner.
The exhibition was held at Luen Fat Street, Luen Wo Hui, Fanling. It displayed a mock room for cleaners in a public toilet on a realistic scale designed by the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Workers show visitors the working situation of cleaning workers. Photographs of resting places for cleaners in different public toilets were also on display.
Around 70 people from St. Joseph’s parish, Fanling, nearby schools and other organisations took part in the sharing sessions of cleaning workers and the exhibition.
The plight of the cleaning workers went viral on Facebook in early 2019 after an old toilet attendant was photographed eating in a public toilet.
Augustine Yu Siu-po, centre supervisor of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Workers in New Territories, said the exhibition was part of a project to address the poor working conditions of these contract workers.
The labour commission surveyed the workers and released its results in April 2019. Over 70 per cent of those surveyed said the contractors did not provide them with a proper place to eat the lunch they brought from home.
According to information gathered from the centre about the public toilets in the Northern District, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department recommends attendant’s rooms be three square metres in area, but half of the over 20 public restrooms are undersized, with the smallest measuring 0.8 square metres.
Some restrooms are so bad that they do not have a roof and only have a rest area inside a toilet compartment. Some are used as storerooms for toilet paper, so there is actually no place to rest.
Yu pointed out that, although the government announced in early 2019 that it would spend $600 million to renovate over 200 old public toilets, it did not seem to pay attention to creating more resting space for the attendants.
The rest space for workers in renovated or optimised public toilets is tiny.
He added that the government had also purchased some tables and chairs of standard size at which workers could sit and eat, but they do not fit inside the small rooms!
Two retired toilet attendants explained their situations during the exhibition. One, who formerly worked at a public toilet near a bus terminal in the Northern District, shared that she started work at seven in the morning.
The toilet, which stayed open overnight, was already filthy and was so overused that she did not have enough time to clean it. Despite her heavy workload, her restroom was so small that she could not turn around inside and did not install even a fan in it.
Another retired worker, who formerly worked in rural areas, said the toilets are usually filthy as they lack flushing power. But there was no water hose, and it was hard to clean with only buckets.
He said having lunch was also a problem as it took at least half an hour to reach the nearest restaurant by bus. But he had no choice because he did not want to eat inside the toilet.
“The government or the contractors should not hire cleaning workers to simply stay in the toilet for a day without considering their needs as human beings,” Yu said. He pointed out that every worker should be treated with dignity according to Catholic social teaching.
The centre urged the government to expand the size of the attendant’s room in public toilets, preferably outside the toilets, to improve the environment for cleaners to rest to serve the public with more dignity.
